Former world time trial champion Filippo Ganna became the first rider to abandon the 2025 Tour de France after crashing during stage one.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider was involved in the incident with 133 of the 184.5km stage remaining, going down with Sean Flynn (Picnic-PostNL) on a right hand corner. After a bike change, the Italian battled on valiantly, but kept returning to his team car, apparently talking to the doctor.
Then, with just under 70km of the day remaining, news emerged that Ganna had been unable to continue the race.
"Obviously he’s not great, he’s had a fall and the concussion came up all clear and then after and then after he started to have some symptoms," said Ineos Grenadiers sport director, Zak Dempster. "We know that’s not something you play with, no matter what the race is, it’s disappointing but his health comes first.
"At the moment everything else is fine he’s a bit sore obviously he’s hit his head pretty hard."
Ganna is a key rider for the British registered team. Not only does he play an important role in pace setting, he would have been their main hope for a stage victory on the race’s two individual time trials. The first of those comes as soon as day five, a flat 33km effort in Caen, perfectly suited to his strengths.
NO further details of Ganna’s conditions are not yet known, and more information may be available later once his condition has been further assessed.
Immediately after Ganna abandoned Ineos Grenadiers posted on social media: "He fought on valiantly but sadly Filippo Ganna has been forced to abandon the Tour de France following a crash on the opening stage."
